In last Sunday’s Gospel on the Beatitudes, we were given a roadmap to
heaven. The exhortation to the disciples to embrace spiritual poverty, meekness, righteousness, peacemaking and the other values of the Kingdom of God is ultimately a call to holiness. They are certainly attainable with God’s grace.
Adding to the call to a life of beatitudes is the command of Jesus in the Gospel this weekend to love our enemies. When one is tempted to fall into hatred, the words of Christ, “love your enemies”, becomes a resounding gong, a strong reminder that to fall into hatred is to embrace the very sin that has become the root cause of the sufferings of others. In the final analysis, this difficult mandate of Christian discipleship is a call for us not to fall into the same veins or situations where the very people that we detest have fallen. And, to love them – that is, to pray for their conversion and well-being – is the only way to lasting peace, not just externally, but for our inner peace as well. It defies logic or human reason, yet in the eyes of the faith, we trust that Divine Wisdom will touch our hearts to see the goodness in every creature.
Hatred can only be countered by love. It is only in love that we can pray for the true conversion of those whom we are struggling to understand, those who have hurt us and have probably made havoc in our lives. To love our enemies is to commit ourselves not to become part of the proliferation of evil, but rather, be instruments of transformation. To love one’s enemies is also to say to the person who has hurt us – “I refused to be controlled by you by holding on to a grudge and resentments. I choose to love and forgive you precisely because I want to be freed from you so that when I think of you I will not be filled with anger and disdain, but rather, find myself praying for your own good and well-being.” This is the love and grace that God wants to give when we are experiencing enmity, the same love our Crucified Lord gave from the cross: "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). – Fr. Cary